Kenya Airways strike: pilots' union officials summoned to court

The Kenya Airways (KA) pilots' union, which has been on strike since Saturday, has been summoned to appear before a court in Nairobi on Monday for staging a strike despite a court order banning it.

Eleven members of the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa) are summoned on Tuesday for "disobeying" a court order "issued on 31 October", the court said in a statement.

The strike, which began at dawn on Saturday (03:00 GMT) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital Nairobi, led to the cancellation of dozens of flights, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

Kenya Airways said on Monday that "due to the ongoing illegal industrial action by the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa), most of our flights (have) been cancelled.

The airline's pilots are demanding better working conditions and payment of unpaid salaries during the pandemic.

On Sunday, 56 flights were cancelled due to the strike, disrupting the plans of 12,000 passengers, according to KA.

On Sunday, Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen called on the pilots to return to work, warning them against "defying a court order".

The strike exacerbates the difficulties facing Kenya's national airline, which has been making losses for years despite regular injections of millions of dollars by the government.